"It was a very small room and it seemed to be full of hundreds of people. It was a very hospital environment, lots of monitors around and all sorts of gear in case something went wrong with the child. But when you're in labour, you don't care,you've lost all your dignity by that point. At that stage I just wanted to lie down and have some pain relief. I had the gas and air and it really did the trick.

Instead of just breathing when I had the contractions, I was inhaling it all the time, I went completely out of my head. I closed my eyes and I could see flashing lights and there was all sorts of sounds in my head. And I remember thinking, oh my God, my body must have reached the highest pain and it can't cope any more and it's cutting out, whereas I was really out of my head on this drug.

And when the midwife came back in she said, 'she's not supposed to be doing that, take it off her', and I was fighting, fighting to keep the mask. It was a brilliant experience because even after I stopped inhaling and I could feel that there were immense pains, I didn't feel tight and worried about it, I just rode it, rode them on the drug."

Giving birth in the 1990s

The navel clamp was put on Ben's umbilical cord when it was cut just after birth.

The baby tag was attached to Ben's foot after he was born.This was to prevent himgetting mixed up with other babies on the ward.

The birth card records Ben's date of birth, weight and the size of his head.

In 1990, 98% of Croydon babies were born in hospital,most of them at Mayday.